Cognitive science and the black magic of brand building

As a student of cognitive science turned brand strategist, I was especially interested in an old post on Bob Hoffman’s blog, The Ad Contrarian (he refers back to it in a much more recent post, or I probably never would have noticed it), about “Salesmen & Sociologists.”

The point of the post is that “we have substantially exaggerated the power of brands. Most consumers in most categories have little or no brand loyalty.” The author goes on to say that most purchasing decisions are made based on functional differences like price and convenience.

So, as a cognitive science dork and a brand strategist, I have to say…he’s absolutely right. At least about the part I’ve mentioned here. The idea of brand loyalty as something that is complete and infallible is greatly exaggerated. (Although, just after reading that post I saw this. Funny timing.) And even if that level of loyalty was commonplace, which it’s not, it wouldn’t be easy to create without a great product.

But all of this is just common sense, right? Any reasonable person can tell you that their preference for a given brand has a limit. If the alternative is sufficiently cheaper or more convenient, of course they’ll switch (or at least try the alternative). Or, if the alternative brand is attractive for more subjective reasons, like style or perceived quality, the customer may also switch.

Brand loyalty, then, should be understood as a bias, not a rule. Our job as brand strategists (or advertising professionals, perhaps) is to encourage a bias in favor of the brands we work with. Agreed, it might be responsible for only a small fraction of the decision for or against a brand. But that’s what we’re going for—all else being equal (price, convenience, etc.), we want the customer’s bias to lead him or her to choose our brand.

Like Hoffman, I’ve never “bought anything from a sociologist.” But spend some time with a social psychologist and I’ll bet you learn a lot about the decisions you make and the opinions you form every day—including some things you didn’t even realize you were doing. Thinking that a bottle of wine tastes better because it has cork instead of a screwcap, or because it costs more. Preferring (or just remembering) the last item in a list…or maybe the last product you saw an ad for (see the recency effect). Ignoring information that doesn’t conform to the opinion you’ve already formed about something or someone (see the confirmation bias).

It’s not black magic, it’s science—and a lot of it’s common sense. But ads and brands that tap into aspects of human nature like these do have an advantage.

For example, Bob Hoffman says he prefers Heinz ketchup.